"I Am Free of What Khalid Did"

After the conquest of Makkah the Prophet ﷺ sent Khalid to the Banu Jadhimah to call them to Islam, not to fight. They came out armed, and when they were told to lay down their weapons they said "saba'na, saba'na", "we have changed our religion", rather than "aslamna", "we have accepted Islam".

Khalid took their wording to be an unclear declaration and had some of them killed and others taken. Some of his companions refused to take part in the killing, including 'Abdullah ibn 'Umar, and the matter reached the Prophet ﷺ.

The Prophet ﷺ raised his hands and said twice, "O Allah, I am free of what Khalid has done" (Sahih al-Bukhari 4339). He then sent 'Ali to give the victims' families their blood money in full, with extra for lost property. Khalid kept his rank, but the Prophet ﷺ's disapproval of the deed stood clear.

01Why it matters

Even a great and loyal servant is answerable, and a good community says so without cancelling his merit.

02Reflection

How do you hold the people you admire to account without erasing what they gave?

03Sources

Sahih al-Bukhari 4339 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
Sahih Muslim 2541 Sahih · in the two Sahihs
Ibn Hisham, al-Sirah al-NabawiyyahHistorical report
Ibn Hajar, Fath al-BariHistorical report

What the hadith grades mean

Sahih (authentic): an unbroken chain of trustworthy, precise narrators, free of hidden flaws or contradiction. It is acted upon.
Hasan (good): like sahih, but a narrator's precision is slightly lighter. It is also accepted and acted upon. "Hasan sahih" means it reaches sahih by its routes.
Da'if (weak): a break in the chain or a narrator who is not reliable enough. It is not used to establish beliefs or rulings.
Very weak (munkar, matruk): a seriously flawed chain or a narrator accused of lying. It is not relied on at all.
Mawdu' (fabricated): falsely attributed to the Prophet ﷺ. It may not be narrated as his words except to warn against it.
The two Sahihs: every hadith with a full chain in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim is accepted as sahih by the scholars of hadith.
Historical report: biographies and histories (Ibn Ishaq, Ibn Sa'd, al-Tabari) record events with chains that are often incomplete. They are used for the story, not for rulings.
Hadith scholars grade a narration; the four madhhabs do not. Where a hadith carries a ruling, the page shows which schools act on it.

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